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Ok folks it's time for my first home theater system, the mini-system, is well, a mini-sytsem, I want a good sound qaulity, can't spend the farm yet, it's for my apartment, dolby prologic II, dts are wants the more formats supported the better I guess. But I don't want spend a fortune on teh system, about $1500-$2000 tops for the reciever and speakers, 85-100 watts per channel should be plenty. I want to hook this up to my pc and write some software to control all this stuff via wireless, ... that's gonna be fun, sit in my back room, and control the stereo, yeah!!!!!!! Also, I believe in buying better quality components as opposed to having a complete system at once that's inferior, when, I can simply buy just say the reciever and a couple of speakers now that are all qaulity stuff, etc ... qaulity not qauntity.
But here's the real kicker, I'm into how technology looks as much as how it works. I want a reciever that has a lime green display? Any out there. You know what I mean the display is like is back lit lime green and the numbers/words are like LCD black? I know it sounds like a crazy request but any recievers out there that have that kind of display?

You can pickup the Kenwood 6070 receiver for under $300 now and it comes with an RF remote, so you wouldn't need to write any software to control it from your backroom. Sorry it doesn't have a lime green dispaly, it's blue.

The man has that kind of budget and you refer him to Kenwood? (only joking, not trying to bash Kenwood. I know the 6070 is a reputable receiver). No lime green or even green that I know of. Sony ES models have a pretty cool looking blue light on them and you can get a pretty decent DA4ES for around $600.00 street price right now. Makes a nice pre/pro when you look to upgrade to seperates. The B&W 600 series (602's I think) speakers are high quality and very aesthetically pleaseing to boot. They have yellow woven Kevlar bass/mids and a killer looking mesh-like pattern on the front; that's if you don't mind bookshelves for your mains. I think they run somewhere near $450 a pair or so. Keep in mind that your speakers should constitue the majority of your budget. Paradigm reference series speakers are also pretty killer for a very reasonable price, sharp looking too. As far as a sub goes, SVS is the way to go there. Great looking design and hard to beat performance wise IMHO. Good luck and have fun. Writing that software sounds like a real chore to me but more power to ya! MM

I agree, a display like that would be kind of cool, almost like a car stereo. Either way I would dedicate the majority of your money to the speakers. 300 on a receiver and 1200 on speakers will go a lot further than 600 on a receiver and 900 on speakers.

When it is time in the HT evolution, invest in a good subwoofer would be my piece of advice. If you can DIY more power to you but if not I would look at SVS and grab one of those subs when you can. Don't settle for less like I did for so many years. It turns a really nice system into a absolute show stopper.

Enjoy the new hobby and keep us updated as to what you decide on.

Long you live and high you flyAnd smiles you'll give and tears you'll cryAnd all you touch and all you seeIs all your life will ever be.-R. Waters

Not trying to be snotty Kevin, I was under the impression that he wanted to take a shot at writing that software. I also agree that $1200 to $1500 invested in speakers will go a lot further than $900 but he said he didn't have to have the whole thing at once. Quality vs. quantity tells me that a good receiver is called for (again, not that the Kenwood isn't). With a $2000 budget, a $600 receiver still leaves some room for decent speaks don't you agree? Plus, if you spend $1500 on speakers, you're going to want to be confident in the power supply that's pushing them. Although, the Kenwood would have no problem there IMHO. I think I read 92 wpc with all channels driven from S&V. Can't really beat that for the price. If I liked the looks of the Kenwood more, I probably would have given it a shot. The extra $ in the receiver might just help stave off that nasty upgrade bug too, at least for a little while. MM

Well, thank you all very much, yes, I'm a tech junkie, I love technology of course I temper it with the occasional pruning of the bonzai tree or learnings from the tao tse tching etc ... but yes, I'm gonna have alot of fun building this Home Theatre, curses, it's always money in the way of greatness ....
Thanks folks, I havne't made any final decisions, just reading, and learning more, I like to be informed when making large purchases. Much appreciated.
And yes, I was doing the software for as much as actual use.

I'd suggest if you're going to seriously want to pump money into speakers and go with a cheap AVR I'd highly recommend the Sherwood 8108 as it has all the surround sound DSPs (DTS-ES, DD-EX, DPL2, DTS-Neo, etc), as this AVR should easily be found on yahoo dirt cheap.
I own the lower model 6108 (paid $129 on sale and sent in a $30 rebate so ended up paying $99) that I use in my bedroom and it easily beat the denon 2400 with the technics SH-AC500D decoder and a fraction of a cost.

Hmmm ... that's an option, but I don't want to try to get to cheap on the avr? I know the speakers are the most important? Plus, if I'm gonna go that cheap I'll just get a board for my pc that can handle all those formats.

Don't consider sherwood with a 2G budget. Piecing together a system a few components/speakers at a time sounds like it is the best plan for you. I have an Onkyo TXSR600 for sale. The ONLY reason I am selling it is that I decided to get into the high end integrated recievers and upgraded to a Integra DTR 8.2

The onkyo would easily push my Polk speakers, RT600i fronts, CSi40 center and FXi50 bipole/dipole surrounds. Even with the supposed wattage drop in 5.1 I could still not stand to turn it above 50 (it goes to 100 I believe, never tried though so not sure) in my moderate sized living room. It has ample inputs (4) and even component switching. Menus and controller are very good and easy to navigate. It is advertised at 80w/channel.

I also have a Toshiba 5 disk DVD changer, only downside is that it is not progressive scan. Does its job nicely for what it is and have had no problems even reading a variety of CD-RW's. All in all a good player, and can be controlled easily with the TXSR-600 remote.

Both of these come with all origional boxing,manuals, accesories, reciepts and even the warrenty cards that I never got around to filling out. I am asking 350 + shipping for both of them. They are both GENTLY used, very well taken care of and were purchased just on 11-2-02.

No matter what, research what is in your price range and try to set up a system on paper before buying. Also audition as many things as you can. Remember it will sound much different in your home then in any CC, Best buy or private stereo shop.

I second Mike's suggestions of a Sony 4ES (600-700 street price) with B&W or Paradigm speakers. Later, you can add a 2-channel amplifier and the 4ES will act as a great pre-amp/processor. Just a thought...
I have two 4ES, one in my office and one at home, and one is mated to a 2-channel amp. The one that is going it alone is still a killer piece, with excellent sound and flexibility. With tweaking, I'd put it up against anything in its class.

thanks, ed, appreciate the offer, but I'm definitely a while away from buying. Yeah, my search is just starting and it seems like it's gonna be a long one, way, way, way to many options out there.
I see that money is just holding me, I was reading up on that Anthem AVM 20, it's so nice, ... and has the yellow/greenish background display I'm looking for (I know childish, but I hate the black backround/blue lcd lettering look), but anyway, maybe I'll just have to save up the $3G to get it, maybe, get a second job or something ;p.
but thanks for the insight.